When the delivery of the 189 series to Deutsche Bahn started, three different configurations for these machines were planned; VA 'Southern Europe', VB 'Central Europe' and VC 'Northern Europe'. It did however never come that far. By delivery, the main difference between these three types were different pantograph configurations. Additional equipment to really make services across the German borders possible were not installed, or not activated.

Theoretically, the VA configuration was the basis for a locomotive that is able to run in Germany and additionally a selection from Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Italy or Switserland. 189 001II-003II and 189 024-060 were delivered with configuration VA. Since then, all machines have been refitted as version VJ (DE / NL) or VM50 Hz (DE / PL / CZ).